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User blog:Ffets/Building Roads
This blog will be dealing with roads in general and how to transfer them into minecraft. Let me begin with a quote: You can listen to a very appealing version of that song here on youtube (played by The Starlit Jewel, sung by Ernest Kinsolving and Kristoph Klover) and also watch a lot of examples for roads. In the "Lord Of The Rings", when leaving the Shire, Frodo tells the other hobbits Bilbo's thoughts on "The Road": My attitude is a bit different: For me the roads are a big net. Everything is connected with everything else. As soon as you step in front of your door, you are balancing that net and can reach everything you can imagine. You are "on the road again" and I like that feeling. Theory of roads The idea of roads is as old as mankind. When you think for example of the songlines of native Australians, where people memorize the landmarks and natural phenomena in a song which is sung, as they travel along the countryside. This is the concept of a virtual road, which is not built in the real world, but exists in the minds and the songs of people nonetheless. When this mere idea of a road is followed frequently by several people, it will show up as a path in reality, because the landscape will wear out more on the path than besides of it. Now, to make travelling easier, people start to remove obstacles, cut branches of trees, fill in holes, building small footbridges and so on. At last, when traffic grows, roads get paved, enlarged in width, big bridges and tunnels are built to make traffic easier and quicker. What purpose does this serve? In the stone age, travelling was a necessity, and is still essential for todays nomads. You had to move out of the cold in winter and out of the heat in summer. You had to follow the game you were chasing and reach points to trade in the right moment. You had to find water and food for the people and the early domesticated animals. In medieval times, roads were important for the traders. Towns on a road, on rivers and at the sea shore grew big and wealthy through trade. It was also important to quickly move your troops from place to place and for craftsman to find new work to be done. Here is a tutorial, how to build a medieval road in minecraft: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrMkbAH1_BA Nowadays, as we've got planes and the railway as alternatives, perhaps roads are no longer that important as before. You don't need a road to send an E-Mail instead of a riding messenger or make a video conference instead of actually traveling somewhere. You can transfer money via bank accounts instead of dragging chests of gold somewhere. Roads in Minecraft Why building roads in Minecraft, instead of teleporting somewhere? Well, first of all, it's fun. You could as well ask, why play Minecraft at all, it is not real, just a virtual world. The answer is the same: Because it's fun. When I started playing vanilla Minecraft, Jan-2-2014, I soon was annoyed by falling into holes when travelling around, sometimes dying, having difficulties getting through dense forests, crossing steep mountains and all this stuff. So I started filling in holes or at least marking them with torches on often used paths. I cut down or burnt down trees in dense forests to make a path. I built stairs to get up mountains or climb into holes. I dind't want to teleport somewhere, for me that's cheating, except fetching some material I forgot to take with me from my home - just to save the travelling time. My first big built was, when I found an abandoned vanilla mineshaft. I thought I could build a railway from all these rails, fences and wood planks found there, to get the achievement "On A Rail". 1000 blocks are pretty much. I first built 300 m east and then 700 m south and learned, that the distance is measured only in one direction, so I had to go another 300 m south. There I developped my system of road building as I still do it now: 1) Decide Start and End: Which points do I want to connect? 2) Scouting: What lies in between, where do I want the bridges and tunnels to be and so on? 3) Measuring: Using the F3 key, you see the position of the player in the world. I write down the coordinates of some key points. 4) Gathering material and tools : What do I need and how much? Where do I get it? 5) Terraforming: Digging up hills, filling in holes, cutting down trees. 6) Building Road: Lying down the material, filling in last gaps. 7) Lighting: I think, roads look nicer that way, especially at night. 8) Renaturating: Plant trees, flowers, grass, etc. Perhaps dig a small lake or build an artificial hill to get rid of the dirt. 9) Decorating: Make the road look more natural. When you look at it, it is like real engineering. In the following paragraphs, I'd like to describe these points in detail. '''To be continued ....' Category:Blog posts